Monday, November 28, 2011

Our corp has a few goals we are working towards… and, as with all New Eden corps, the route to those goals is fueled by ISK. As a Wormhole Exploration and Restoration Corporation (say it out loud… its FUN!!) we primarily make ISK thru running Sleeper Sites, the sites that spawn in our homehole but especially sites in OTHER WHs, we call this raiding.

The Honey Hole…

A few weeks ago Strigon pulled the days Scan Op and was probing down the days holes. He got the Stat C2, warped in per S.O.P. to do the initial survey… he reported that, (1) it seemed to be empty (uninhabited) and…. (b) OH DAMN!!! There were too many sites to count (chat logs follow screenshot)! He later gave a rough count at 60+… that’s OVER 60 Sleeper sites on Dscan and he counted 28 sites on probe scan… that’s approximately 90 TOTAL SITES!! It was The GREEN Cloud… (FYI, in the screenshot below I count 68 sites…) =]

For them as what dunt know, Ima go into a little detail here, so class, come to order…

The Class 2 Sleeper “Cosmic Anomaly” (combat) sites ISK value is highly variable. But… if you get just 1 MNR (Melted Nanoribbon) dropped, it can be worth, currently, a low of ISK 6M to over 7M (at the time of writing the Jita Quick Buy price is: ISK 6,572,230.00 x1 MNR), and if you hit a fantastic drop rate, let’s say… 5 MNRs dropped in 1 site, plus a good load of the other loot & salvage, a single site “can” be worth upwards of ISK 35M. Yup, ISK 35,000,000.00 for one site… that high is rare, but I’ve seen it.

So, let us do some math… let’s say you run, ohhh… 15 C2 combat sites, which is only a few hours work for a small 2 or 3 BS fleet with Scan Frig & Noctis support. 15 sites with an average of 0 to 3 MNR’s recovered per site so let’s say you end up with 17 MNRs. With that and the other L&S yer lookin at an approx average of 130 Million ISK… that’s ISK 130,000,000.00 (here I am being conservative, keep reading and you’ll find out why). =]

DISCLAIMER: The above is a SWAG (Scientific Wild Assed Guess) based on my personal experience and also keep in mind…

The amount of MNRs and other L&S recovered is also affected by the guy runnin the salvage ship, what ship he salvages with, and the mods, rigs and skills applied. I have maxed out skills, advanced mechanic skill Salvaging at L5. I use the ORE dedicated Salvager, the Noctis fully rigged with 3x Medium Salvage Tackle Is and, as I am an L5 salvager, I can fit and run 4x Salvager IIs, to speed things up I also run 4x Small Tractor Beams. All of this is done to increase the chance to pull salvage or to reduce the time to complete salvaging. Because with Sleepers, the ONLY way you can make ISK is from the Loot & Salvage, but MAN it can be REALLY GOOD ISK!!!!

With my skills, ship & fit I have an ‘on-paper’ 120% chance to pull good salvage. The only thing I am not doing is rigging Medium Salvage Tackle IIs, an additional 15% increase in chance of salvage recovery (5% over the T1 rigs but cost prohibitive), and using the Hardwiring Implants (slot 9 & 10), 'Prospector' PPY-1, a 5% increase in chance of salvage recovery and, ‘Prospector’ PPZ-1, a 5% reduction in cycle time of salvagers… both of which I am considering getting. If I upgrade to the T2 rigs and both ‘plants, I will have an ‘on-paper’ chance of recovery of the game max of 130%. So far I have been very happy with my recovery rates and I can tell a definite difference from the days when I was skillin up to L5.

There’s the bell, class concluded…. you will be severely tested if you ever get into Salvaging in W-space.

Back to our story…

So Strigon is sittin inna C2 hole with sumthin over 90 Sleeper Sites… between 60 and 70 combat sites and 28 cosmic signatures. The sigs are the Ladar, Gravimetric, Magnetometric & Radar sites that have minable resources with a minimal Sleeper defense presence that usually spawns after you start mining operations. And he scanned for ‘life’ and found one offline POS… LOL. It was an EMPTY hole!!! This is the dreamed of strike… a hole with no residents to worry about and a (low) estimate of 2 BILLION in ISK just waiting to be harvested… Oh Frabjous Day!!

One of the other things we do is after we ‘reclaim’ a W-space (IE clean up all the Sleeper sites) is, if the Planetary Interaction, from which one makes the majority of the POS fuels from, and Static holes are decent, we offer the hole for sale on the market. This one was a ‘decent’ hole sale wise, not ‘great’ but good, WHs sell on the market from ISK 100M to ISK 500M on average, we hoped to put this one up for around ISK 400M. Decent PI and a Stat Hi and a Stat C3…

Hmmmm (grin), a C3… I feel we need to up our game and start takin on C3 WHs as they are harder, (IE moar challenging and fun to run) AND substantially moar lucrative too, but to do so we need to have regular access to them. So I am pushin for my corp to find a hole with a Stat C3, or just move to a C3… so on the ‘Pro’ side this one did catch my eye. On the ‘con’ side of the sheet, it has a Stat Hi-sec hole…

Hmm (frown), Stat Hi-sec… We really prefer a hole with a Stat low as you dunt get nearly as many ‘visitors’ as you do with a Stat Hi. Experience has shown that there are simply a LOT moar people scanning for holes in Hi-sec than in low is all.

Anyhoo, we were, of course, VERY ready to get busy with the Reclamation Op and start separatin the Sleepers from their very lucrative L&S… I was in hisec and Strigon gave me our Stat low, we fleet up and I was OMW. I pop in, reship to my Mael and we jump in. Strigon had setup a Warp Bubble on the Raid hole’s Stat Hisec as a precaution then he started on the sites and had 3 done when I joined him and we knocked down 2 moar. As it was a raid hole, after 5 sites I usually reship to my Noctis and start salvaging behind the fleet.

“Tengu on SCAN!!!”...

There is always a risk of either the residents (not in this case) or outside raiders (always) poppin in on you and takin advantage of the fact that your ships are PvE fit AND that you probably have Sleeper L&S in your hold, ESPECIALLY if there is a Noctis in the sky… the Noctis is ALWAYS ‘Primary”… I am always nervous when salvaging Sleepers in my Noc, especially when in a strange hole…

And tonight was no exception… After Tsra fleeted up and joined us, they were workin the sites and I was salvaging when over the Neocom we hear, “Tengu on scan!!!” I order “Man Battle Stations!” and the Emergency Klaxons scream throughout the ship… I turn and burn for our homehole, pop through, warp back to the POS safe and reshipped to my ‘Cane. Strigon was in his Rokh and I can’t ‘member what Tsra was in…

The Tengu was campin out near the Hisec hole and hopin for some pew pew… we tried to oblige. Tsra went in, and once engaged called us in and we all started to dance… The Tengu turned his loving attentions on me and I eventually began to bleed deep armor… we weren’t breakin his tank but he was breakin mine, so I warped through the hole… and right into Amarrgh space!!

This was BEFORE I had fixed my Amarr standings so I was still tagged as “shoot-on-sight” to the Amarrgh Imperious Navy and all gate and stations guns… oh joy! Talk about bein caught ‘tween a rock and a hard place… I was caught ‘tween a Tengu and the Amarr Navy!! LOL

I warped to the closest station, was warned at the door as they tractored me in… Seems ISK talks though, they still did all the repairs I ordered, and paid for, and a first class job of it too. I undock, the station screams it’s dire warning again as the guns try to lock me. I warp back to the hole with the Amarrgh Navy in hot pursuit and call out on TS, “Do I jump in??”

I land and the Amarr Navy lands a few seconds later while I am waiting for a response… I ‘jump jump’ as they start in on my shields (sliver of red) and Tsra advises me to get back to our hole as we are not gonna kill him and he is not killin us… Strigon is tankin him in his Rokh he’s not breakin the Tengu’s tank either… finally the Teng pilot pops back through the hisec hole and eventually leaves. =]

Salvaging Magic...We give it a bit and then go back to waffle stompin the ISK outta the Sleepers. A bit later on Sov and a few others joined in and we ended up running 15 sites total that 1st night… I did all the salvaging and I was very, VERY pleased with the results.

In order to keep inventory and shares accurate, I store all L&S from each fleet in a Huge Secure Can and name it with the fleet member’s names. If the fleet changes members, I start a new can and so on. So you see below a screeshot with the 2 cans from the 1st night’s raid. The 1st is 10 sites: me, Strigon and Tsra, the 2nd is 5 sites: after Sov and others joined us.

Now one thing I am when salvaging, is superstitious. I have several rules I try not to break…(1) NEVER look into the hold until you are done. (“Done” being of a personally variable definition… sumtimes ‘done’ means done with a whole run of sites and sumtimes it means done with THAT site…)

(2) ALWAYS run 2 or moar salvagers on the BS wrecks… why? I dunno… =P

Now even with that all I can say is that the drop rates I got in this raid were, to me, simply amazing.I ran through the 1st 5 sites and got 4 MNRs… meh. Not what you want, but around what you expect. Then I ran 2 sites and checked the hold… DAMN!!! 15 MNRs for just 2 sites… I’ve never had a drop rate that high before. I picked up 5 moar in the last 3 sites, about what you hope for. So for 10 sites we got 24 MNRs… shiney. =] Then Sov and some frens joined us and we ran 5 moar sites… this time I dint check the hold till I was OMW back to the POS, 15 MNRs for 5 sites… YEA!!! That’s an even better drop rate than the 1st 10 sites, wayyy above expectations.

For those of you not familiar with WHs or Sleepers, in the screencap above of the L&S from what I pulled that 1st nights raid, I highlighted in yellow the top 4 ISK makers in Sleeper L&S… the value breakdown of the top 4 only is as follows:

After Strigon and I logged, Sov, Tsra & Co. kept at it and logged off in the Raid Hole. The next day the Raid Hole had, of course, closed in our C2, and while Sov & Tsra did have a scan frig and scanned down the new Hisec, Strigon and I dint make it back in as we got caught up in other stuff. He and I did run a few sites that had popped in the homehole, so not an unproductive day…

Sov & Tsra continued to run sites and they also sold the hole (ISK 400M and Strigon got the finder’s fee) to a corp we are Blue with, good good. It was funny though, I heard later that one of em, Tsra or Sov, got simply “tired” of bashin Sleepers… TIRED of making some of the best ISK to be made in EVE… LOL

Wrecks eye view of my Salvage Thrasher

The day after that though, our little corp did make it back into the Raid Hole… Strigon and I left our C2 and Sov & Tsra gave us the Raid Hole system, brought us in and then left to head back to the home C2. I dint wanna risk a Noctis with no connecting WH to ours so picked up a Salvage Thrasher I had in storage out in Autaris from back when I was in RvB and I refitted her to be a Cloaky Salvage Thrasher and brought her to the Raid hole. I also brought in my Mael and a Cheetah so I had a DPS ship and we had a scan frig inside. Strigon was in his Rokh and AI was in his Hyperion.

The new owners were settin up their POS, and we hung out there while we were gettin ready. Once all systems had been checked and dubble checked, we ran all the sites we could until we were wore out… and tired of killin Sleepers… now where have I heard that afore? LOL

The next day we basically call it quits, we and our sister corp have nommed something like 40 to 50 Sleeper sites, there are STILL almost 30 left considering that sites were still spawning while we were workin on em, and of course, we needed to leave “some” for the new owners… =] So we pack it in and head for our homehole… tired, beat but quite a bit the richer… to put it mildly. I would give figures on how much in total was taken from this hole, but I dunt have, nor will I ask for, the totals for our sister corp and my corps finances are, well, none yo business… =]

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Our old Alliance, DemSal, imploded with massive loss of ISK (on its part) and respect (on my part). OK, shit happens, it’s EVE, let’s move on… and most did, some to other Alliances some to other corps. A few stayed together and formed a new Alliance out of the ashes of the old and HBHI has joined this new Alliance. And we are goin thru some changes man… but, not really.

Now, as we live in a wormhole we are not as connected to Empire space (hi, lo & null sec) goings on as the majority of EVE denizens.

Case in point:

I knew nothing of the “MT Riots” in Jita, Amarr and other locations until I flew to Jita on a store run one fine EVEning… imagine my surprise when I discovered a real for-god riot under way that had Empire space stirred up like a grenade dropped inna fish bowl. Until I jumped the Perimeter gate I, and my corp, had no idea there was ANYTHING unusual going on.‘nother Case in point:

One of our guys popped outta the hole a few days ago, docked up and exclaimed “Heyyy! They brought back ship spinning!” We collectively groaned and have gotten some real good LOLs outta that one as ervybody knows ship spinnin came back weeks ago.But these, and many other instances highlight (1) how little the dramas of Empire space affects those of as really ‘live’ in holes and (2) how little my corp keeps up with events in Empire in the B-logs, D-logs and newsfeeds on the Neocom…. Sad, sad, sad.At this point I must to digress briefly and make a side note... We who live in POSes never lost ship spinnin. In a POS, you are either logged off or you are in a ship inside the forcefield, or OYW sumwhar else... From the release of Incarna right through all the insanity and hoopla that followed, right up to today, when POS dwellers are on but just hangin out, we could and can still be found happily spinnin our ships in the POS... and with a far, FAR better view than any old CQ or stoopid 'door', lemme tell you!

We now return to our regularly scheduled post…

So, we are back in an Alliance. This one is a bit moar reserved but also bit moar… ‘involved’ is how I guess I would put it. All in all it comes across as a moar mature and stable Alliance on the whole. One of the exciting things going on… the negotiations for a move to null… (yipes!)Yup, I said it…. The dreaded NULLSEC. You see, I may live in a wormhole, which by definition IS nullsec as its security rating is -1.0, yet I myself have never done any business or work below 0.2… oh, I did once run through a 0.1 system, but I dint stop off and have a beer, so I dunt count that (anyway I had my eyes closed the whole time…). So you see, I can honestly state that I have never been in null even though I live there. LOL A conundrum I have always greatly enjoyed… =]

While I do live in the aforesaid -1.0 W-space, I am moar skittish of going to or being IN null than WHs for the main reason that (1) in WHs you have 'no-local', and (b) W-space is off-the-beaten-path, not-on-the-map. Not a part of Empire. No public use gates, no “Spike in local!”, no jump bridges, no NPC stations, IE: SECLUDED = NO PEOPLE. Just a few of us, and the occasional target or three. Nice, quiet, private.I HATE Jita… that many people I dunt know, all flyin heavily armed ships, all in one place… just makes my skin crawl.Anyhoo…. The people heading up the Alliance are a group who’s last corp was a null sec corp which had come up to Empire to take an R&R break. They broke up after DemSal imploded and a core of them plus a few from other corps that were in DemSal formed a new corp and they established the new Alliance. And our new Alliance is now in negotiations to rent us a place in null. It’s still early in the negotiations so no details yet. There have been a few bumps in the road as is normal in these situations, hence the first subtitle of this post… =]If they ever do get ervybody happy with the details then my corp will, for the first time, have an opportunity to ‘safely’ venture into nullsec. Safely you say huh? Well we’ll not be “neutral”, which as I understand in it is null equivalent to being Flashy RED to EFFIN ERVYBODY. We’ll be Blue to the Alliance overlords and the other tenants etc. As I understand it that means we will be as safe there as, if not actually safer than, in Hisec… this is what I have heard from some. If the negotiations pan out then we shall see what we shall see.Part the Second:

“What Else Is Tur Up To?”As for me personally, while all the above is playing out I have been working on getting into Incursioning.You see a number of months back a few frens and I were sittin outside Dodi station watchin the Fools Parade and shooting the shit as there was nothing else worth shootin ATM… and the convo swayed into the Dream Ships Category of Standard EVE Chat Subjects. I opined as I dint really have any dream ships, I was still just workin my way up the std power ladder at the time and had recently gotten into a Phoon and was happy with that… then a Macharial undocked and passed by us… “Now, if I had a dream ship that would be it.” Said I, “But no… Look at it, it is an Amarrian ship and you know me, I dunt fly Amarrgh.”The not flyin Amarrgh thing is partially a small bit of RP I do, as a Minmatar (a race the God cursed Amarr have enslaved for generations) I dunt fly Amarr on principle… and partially as a Minnie, I feel we have the best ships overall in EVE anyway so uther than the Drake (for WHs), the Noctis (ORE salvager) and a few uther frigs I am concentrating my skills on Minmatar ships exclusively…Anyhoo, one of the guys pointed out it was not an Amarrian design, but an Angel Cartel creation based on a Jovian design and built with Minmatar and Gallente tech… “Huh!?!” “Really?...” I looked it up and said how “Well then, it seems I do have a dream ship, go figger…” One of my frens, not a corpmate (at the time) or Ally who is (was then) a bit of a Hisec richbich… bought me one. Right then and there. As a gift… uh wha?.

I was floored as you might imagine. ISK 800+M hull… as an impulse buy gift. Nice to have frens. Anyhoo… I couldn’t fly it at the time, so it sat in the dock for a while, and when I did skill up to fly it, I T2 fitted it for PvE and flew it to the hole. Where it has gone out on exactly one run in a sleeper site, which proved I could not fit a Mach as well as I thought I could… so it went back into the POS where it has sat.It has come out only once since and that was to commemorate and swap DPS with our Carrier, a Nidhoggur, the day it was commissioned and sea trialed. Other than that, she’s been an ornament and a m3 hog in the Ship Maint Array. If yer wonderin why… I dint wanna lose it to a gankin or stoopidity, It was a GIFT from a fren fer crists sake…So, our shiney new Alliance gets involved in running Incursions… the Mach is a defacto staple ‘cursion boat….and I have a Mach I am letting go to waste… Hmmm. I spend my usual excessive amount of time reading up on ervything I can find on Machs, Incursions and how the two go together like Quafe and Ruum. I finally go to my Alliance FCs and request their advice on fits and shit…. I get some MOAR links to moar very good info on the above topic… mmmK.I refit my Mach specifically for Incursions (for now, T2 w/ best ‘named’ 800mm guns and one Meta 4 named mod I dunt have T2 skills for) and get aholt of one of our FCs…. Post my fit feelin I confident I am in the money and…. I get pretty much fatally trolled. I have 7x800mm Autocannons and I had 2x Ballistic Control Systems in my lows… “BCSs are for MISSILES you NOOB!!!” was about the nicest thing I hard for a while there… Anyhoo… swapped out the BCSs for the Gryostabilizer IIs I was supposed to have and the trolling slacked off… dint stop, just got less aggressive. And I got the sign off on my boat & fit from 3 of our FCs… I was in.

Now all I had to do was (1) get the Mach out of the hole and actually buy and fit the rigs/mods as spec’ed… and yea the fit I sent em was a PYFA fit transmitted to SARA (the Semi-Autonomous Rational Array that is the Master Admin Program over all of my computing needs both in POS and onboard all my ships) and sent to chat from there… (b) find a way to pull the free time on one of the set ‘cursioning dates the Alliance has on the calendar… and lemme tell you, the first was far easier than the second.Oh and one I fergot… (1A) fix my Standings re the Amarrgh Empire so I can actually GO ‘acursioning… HUH? Yes, you see a very high percentage of Hisec ‘cursions happen to break out in Amarrgh space… and I was at a -6.29 standing. You see, at -5.0 as it says here, "NPC factions will begin shooting you on sight in their space. (-5.0 Modified Personal Standing)". I couldn’t fly in Amarr space. Well, I could, but I’d get shot at… a lot… by ALL of the gate and station guns AND the Imperial Amarr Navy would chase my ass around to boot… remember the Whoredur loss of many mil of ISK? Yea, that crap… crap.So the OTHER thing I have been doin is fixing my standing re Amarrgh… and that dunt make Tur a happy boy, at all. You see, that means Ima hafta run mishins FOR the god cursed Amarr!! Crap. I hate mishin runnin in general and running them FOR the Amarrgh Empire… well, as a Minmatar that is as distasteful to me as… as… as… well, mining. lolSo began my desperate search to find out how to raise my standings to the Amarrgh without selling out on my principles… and without boring me to the point of seppuku. One of the things I found was the Social skill, “Diplomacy”. Now back when I was still runnin mishins for a livin, we all trained up all the Social skills cause they affect the agent you can access and the mish payout amounts… I assumed I had skilled up all of them including Diplomacy. Ahhhh… wrong Batman, I dint. So I find out that the Diplomacy skill directly affects your Faction Standings and I hadn’t learned it as it does not ‘directly’ affect mishin agent accessability or reward, bounty, bonus & LP amounts unless your standings are for shit, which my weren’t at the time.Cool, I bought the book, stopped all training on the Loki (my new dream boat) and kicked off Diplomacy to L5. Ah HA!! Quickly skilled up to L3 and BAM! Im ‘in like Flint’ (google it) Amarrgh standings up to -4.99, WOOHOO!!! I can fly in Amarrgh space and not get all killed by the stooped NPCs!! Yea! LOL So to bump em up a bit moar to be on the safe side, I decide to run some of the Data Center mishes which give a direct Faction Standings bump.They’re L1 mishes and on the whole wayyy too easy as I went out to run em in my L4 Mish fit Phoon and I actually hadda really good time cause I was epically waffle stompin ERVYTHING in sight!! LOL Warp in to 7 frigs w/ rookie pilots @ 50km, no agro, send in the drones, 2 Hvy Webbers and 3 Warrior 2s… they tackle the frigs and, of course, do enough damage to kill em, but I like to wait for their transversal to drop under 50km/s and one shot em with the 1200’s for the lulz… =]Anyhoo… I work just one of the Data Centers mish inna mish and up my Amarrgh Standings to -3.44… yea me! So I can now safely go ‘acursioning in Amarrgh. The Imperial Amarrgh Navy will allow me to pass unmolested, I have a Machurson boat & fit which have been given the stamp of approval by my Alliance FCs… now all I need is a few wifeaggro free hours one afternoon or evening… uh huh…

Well…. With a pre-req like that, and wifeaggro like I get... looks like I will never go ‘acursioning. =\

PSFor them as might be curious, when I finished skilling Diplomacy to L5 and with several Data Center mishes under my belt my Amarrgh standings raised to a comfortable -2.49. Gotta watch that from now on… =]

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Just wanted to jot off a note here to the masses of my readership... (yo dude)

Several of my recent posts tell a few tales of, well, no proud moments to be sure... however...

It seems to me women have an insight men often miss. I have, as you may have followed, recently lost a Hoarder to stoopidity and a Drake to a wormhole raid (the which of included a podding [with a full set of 'plants AND 'wires... sheesh] as is normal in W-space)... sigh. One might imagine this could lead to a wee bit 'O depression and yes, I will say it... some tears.

But the lady folk have a way of dealin with such feelins that, for the most part, the male of the species finds perplexin and even a might irritatin. You see, when a (not all, but many) woman gets depressed... she oft goes shoppin, and very often for... of all things, shoes. Huh...

Well I am here to tell ya they just my be onto sumthin here... you see after I lost the Whoredur... I went and bought me a Jag.. =]

Man OH Man... Nuthin felt better and picked me up moar than undockin in my bran new Jag. I flew it back to the hole and spent moar than a few hours just sittin an lookin at it in the Hangar bay, sittin in the cockpit, luxuriatin in that 'new cockpit' smell... Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... =]

Shortly after that came the WH Raid that put paid to the SleeperSpecial, my WH Duck [and POD] and THAT put me back in Autaris, spittin up clone goo and goin thru the whole bodyloss experience all over again.

I HATE gettin use to a new body.... even if it is cloned from my very own DNA, still always "feels" weird... like... like walkin around and every step you take has that "5th step up a 4 step staircase" feel to it. You know, when you go for a step what aint there... and for just a split second your world is all "wrong" feelin... sigh. But, it does go away after a while.

Anyhoo... I woke in Autaris and felt even worse than I did after the Whore loss a few days afore... so... I bought me a bran new Wolf!!! LOL

and once again, "Nuthin felt better and picked me up moar than undockin in my deadly new Wolf."

Now two things to unnerstan... I have wanted a Jag and/or a Wolf for months now, I was just holding myself firm to the training schedule I had setup, which was to hammer down a number of L5 skills I have been puttin off due to the time investment... keep in mind also some of them unlocked Assault Frigs, which the Jag and Wolf are. Now Jag is, well it's a JAG man!! Sleek, dark, FAST and a graceful, hard hittin beauty, As for the Wolf... well, the Wolf is a no holds barred barroom brawler... and looks it.

I spent several hours on my way from Jita to Dodi stoppin off in likly 0.5 systems and doin a little rattin, just for fun and to 'safely' try out her legs and fists. Needless to say she makes vurra short work of every Rat I came across. I was hard put to keep up with target changes... LOL Was FUN!!! and JUST what I needed after the week I have had.

Now I am sure there are them out there as what feel killin NPCs is NOT what you 'need' after losin at PvP, you need to GO AND KILL SUMONE!!!!... but you needa 'member in both cases I was in a Pv"E" fitted ship. I was not seekin and actually was hopin to avoid, PvP in both cases. I accept that I got killed.... I mean, it's EVE fer Krist's sake.You know what they say...

"When sumthin bad happens to you in EVE, always 'member to bow deep and say... 'Thank you CCP! May I have another?'" =]

Friday, November 11, 2011

[The scene: A man sits alone in a large luxurious darkened room, the spacious private quarters of a powerful corporate executive, a Capsuleer Starship Captain, in the uppermost levels of a Planetary Orbital Station. The semicircular windowwall of neucleonic reinforced armorglass he faces encompasses a sweeping view which includes many of the assembly and refining arrays for the ships, drones, ammunition & fuels that support this station. In an arc across the sky, outside of the shimmering forcefield that protects them, the Red Giant sun shines through a double row of large warp disruption bubbles covering all primary approaches to this station… he seems intent on what lies, beyond…]

It is late and the somber sky forebodes an ill EVE one might say... I sit, alone in my study. The lights are off and in the gloom the deep grain of the rich Kallewood paneling glows a dark blood red, reflecting the ruddy light of the Red Giant sun that is the lifegiver here, in the wormhole space we call home.

I savor a snifter of 100 year old Ruum, thinking of the future, and of the long distant past. I know they are out there... deep in the hidden places in that eternal night. Sleepers. Drones and spacefaring ships of immense power and strong defensive armor. Inimical to all life. They attack without warning or provocation. Their programming allows for no quarter, no truce, no end to conflict. Warp in, intentionally or unknowingly, to their location and unless you are prepared and ready for a serious fight, you will die… as so many have.

My thoughts churn over all I have learned about The Sleepers since I first ventured into my first wormhole… since I first fought them.

Accepted doctrine is that Sleeper drones and ships are merely programmed machines, AI, Artificial Intelligences at best… but still, just machines. Artificial constructs, “things”… but, in my studies I have recently come across a radical concept. New and… disturbing. Is it possible that they are one of the original races that crawled up out of the ashes after the EVE Gate collapse? No one has ever found a living, or dead, Sleeper 'body' but this new theory proposes that they are most likely cybernetic beings, evolved from Terran, from human, yes, from ‘us’, into the black, deadly and unholy living drones and ships that leave us no choice but to fight.

The basis for this new theory is in the incredible technology we harvest, and sell, that is being studied in research centers in all of the Empires and Republics of New Eden and is used in the creation of more powerful starships. In all of this technology, there is a cybernetic or cyberlike basis or component. So far this was thought to simply be an advanced application of what Terrans have long attempted, to meld machine/computer speed and power with the flexibility and creativity inherent in biological/chemical systems… the prime example, the human brain which created the computer. What if they could be joined?

But what if the race that became the Sleepers had taken this to the end product, the final realization… A melding of artifact and life? What if they had become cybernetic living beings? Living machines… How would we recognize them as a lifeform? What changes in them would this ensue? Would they still be, ‘human’ or even ‘alive’ as we define it? Since I have learned of this theory I cannot help but wonder if we are fighting, and killing, living beings of metal and electricity… or are they just the automated lifeless drones we have for so long believed them to be?

Sleeper salvaging is one of the most lucrative trades in New Eden. But… as long as we were simply destroying drones… machines, the left over relics of some long forgotten wormhole war… I was at peace as we were ridding ourselves of a blasphemy, machines programmed to kill living beings. Morally we had the high ground. But… if we are ’killing’ living entities and profiting thereby… that puts our life here in a whole different light. One I am not as comfortable with.

I remember how it was before we came here... I had my fill of the faction bickering, political backstabbing, vandettas and feuds that no one could even remember the cause of… and worst of all, the sheer greed that was the driving force behind the piracy and so much of the conflict that freely spends the lives of so many as fuel to fill the coffers of corporations and alliances in the empires of New Eden… I had become sick of it, and sick of myself for being a part of it.

Therefore I left Empire Space and the endless, senseless killing. Oh yes, I was assured of my personal survival… I am a Capsuleer Starship Captain, and therefore, immortal. But my crew… and the crews of other Captains are not… and even with excellent lifesaving equipment, with the best ISK can buy in escape pods…. many are lost… many die in the fire and ice of combat in the black, so many… too many… I swore to my crews I would not risk their lives for the greed of others… that we would find a life where we could be proud to do our duty and unashamed of our service.

And so, we came here… to a Class 2 wormhole where we would fight the Sleeper Drones and harvest the lucrative loot and salvage without committing murder. We came out here to stop Killing for a Living and do what we were trained for, what we do best, and yes, what we love… so we can all afford a better, safer life…

Yes, it is dangerous and deadly work… and yes, we have killed here, and some of us have died in that defense. We have had to fight to protect our home from those who would scan down the random entrances to this W-space… But it is the Good Fight. We are defending our home and loved ones… not killing for profit or much worse, for the profit of others.

It has been a good life here. We have built a Station and a life worthy of living and enjoying… and now I find myself disturbed and ill at ease at the thought that we are still killing for profit. Killing in the name of Greed...

And I... I am going back out there, into that deadly sky... I, my ship and my crew, to find, and to fight them once again. No longer sure of my purpose and whether I am doing ‘good’ or not… I sip the warm aromatic Ruum and stare into the black… Yes, we will go back out. Yes we will destroy, or kill, the Sleepers… This is what I do. This is what we do. It is all we have…

Monday, November 7, 2011

OK, back a few weeks ago I was tryin out mishin runnin in Empire space again… as you who follow this know I decided I do not enjoy missioning anymoar, A side note to the whole missions thing was I whacked the crap outta my Faction Standings re the Amarr Empire… my current standings are -6.sumthing… This means I can no longer travel freely through the Amarr Empire without tempting the fates. EVERY Amarr gate and station, and the Imperial Amarr Navy will give me fair warning then blow my ass up if possible.

Now this is not the same level of response CONCORD gives to a ganker. I have watched a few gankings over time and lemme tell you, CONCORDs response was amazing. The speed with which they arrived and attacked was phenomenal, and the level of DPS brought to bear was devastating. In the case of standings status transgression though, the Imperial Amarr Navy responds about the same as the gate and station defenses. About the same level of DPS you could expect from POS guns being manually controlled, IE with a good tank you “should” be able to exit stage left with your hull, and possibly some degree of your armor intact.

I dint start out warpin to Amarr space. I had been very careful in my trip planning after I discovered my Amarr standings had gotten so bad. As we live in a WH it is not a huge issue, unless our static lowsec hole pops in Amarr space, which it does occasionally… but that can often be worked around by seeing where our static C2 has its exit. I can “usually” find a way in or out that is not in Amarr space.

There are 2 nights in question here… on one I was logged on as my WH Alt, Angel, and I made fuel run and tried to save time by running a 2 hop lowsec entrance to our WH…

The other was the next night, logged on as Tura, again doin a fuel run but this time tryin to avoid the kinda debacle I had the night before, to wit…

Epic RESCUE!!

We had a sukky lowsec that night, 2 low hops but it was only 15 hops from Rens We did have a nice ‘safe’ hisec hole available via the Stat C2, but it was like 33 hops away and I just was not interested in it. We were runnin low on some POS fuels and I needed to make a store run. I logged on as Angel and made the run to Rens. Loaded up my Hoarder (named Whoredur… LOL).

My Whores are always fully rigged with Med Cargohold Optimization Is and the lows slots are fitted with Expanded Cargohold IIs so her modded base capacity is a 17.7K m3, add 12 Huge Cans and you bump it up to 22.6K m3. Considering the Hoarder’s base cargo capacity is a measly 5610 m3, that is a x4 increase in capacity… not too shabby for the little Hoarder.

OK, so I am ready to make my run, I have allies in the hole ready to scout the low run in. I make an uneventful 13 hops to the last hisec system and we’re goodtogo… Here’s where the fun starts.

﻿[05:56:20 ] Angel(alt) > LOL, ok, ready to warp to the Ihal side of the Mifrata gate

﻿[05:56:27 ] Angel(alt) > warpin

He warps to the out gate as I ‘jump jump’, I get the all clear on the inside gate and warp to, he jumps thru and all clear. I land, get the OK and jump jump… “WAIT!!!” Tsra barks TS, “TOO LATE!!!” I yell back… “CRAP! Hold cloak, hold cloak. A Broadsword landed the second I gave you the all clear.” We wait, to see what he does… he couldn’t have seen the gate flash, he hadda be in warp when I jumped. But he is acting like he is camping…

The Broadsword is 14km from me, approx 20 or so from the gate… and he aint going anywhere. Tsra makes a decision, “Tur, when your cloak drops run for the gate.” he uncloaks and baits the Broadsword seconds before my jump cloak breaks. The Broadsword takes the bait and aggresses Tsra…

[05:59:50] (notify) Blorgg: You have foolishly engaged in criminal activity within sight of sentry guns and must suffer the consequences.

Tsra’s betting he can speed tank the HIC for the brief time I will need to get in jump range. I turn and burn for the gate… then after 14 seconds the Broadsword pilot breaks off his attack on Tsra and engages me.

Tsra had bought me those few precious seconds I needed to make it to the gates max jump range and the Broadsword does not have enough time to break my passive x2 Extended shield tank before I jump thru... and Tsra warps away, so he lost both kills. I have 0% Shield, and 30% Armor left…

On landing I warp to 100 km from the first thing I click on… the sun… uh oh… ohfukme, did I oops again? I quickly make a random BM, a SafeSpot, while in warp to the sun, on landing I attempt to immediately warp to the SS. Low and behold a RED Cheetah uncloaks, burns quickly into range, scrams me and begins orbiting at 500 m. My Whore, with a MWD, has the blazing top speed of 200 m/s, which I cannot use, so the Cheetah had no problem keepin me in range…

So, there I was scrammed, in low armor and held fast at the sun by a RED in a 0.3 system… I’m as good as dead right? My allies work out a response. Tsra will come back in his Cheetah and Sov, Tsra’s corpmate, is going to join in his Falcon… it’s a race to see if they get there and runoff the RED Cheetah afore he is able to bring in backup… or, hmmm… he could be holding me as bait… Oh well, its EVE right? This all takes a few minutes… during which my shields regen back to 100%, shiney… =\

We fleet up and a few mins later my allies warp in, the Cheetah unlocks me and I instawarp to the SS (at the release of the scram I was at full speed), they call out that a Drake landed just as I went to warp but they were both able to warp out... Hurrah!! I leave the SS and warp to the hisec gate, "jump jump" and my screens clear to the glorious view of the (in comparison) safer skies of 0.5 space… whew. OK, THAT was a mistake! LOL…

Breathing a deep sigh of relief I set the autopilot for the 30+ hops to the “safe” hisec hole we have available via our current Stat C2. I pop into the first station with a repair center en route and happily pay for full restoration of my armor and associated damage.

The rest of the now 35 hop run to the hisec hole went by slowly but uneventfully…

[07:53:37] Angel (alt) > ahhhhhhhhhh.... home crap home!!

Epic FAIL

The next evenin, logged on as Tur, I make another store run for fuels… only THIS time I am not gonna risk the lowsec, uh uh, no way… fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, asplode me! I load up on fuels, get the hisec system from Sov, and set course without ONCE looking at where in EVE I am going…

I undock and let the AP take the wheel. I retire to the galley and throw together a quick handmeal. A labham & fauxlony with vatcheese stuffed breadtube and a Rum & Quafe…. Ahhhhh… just the thing for a long boring haul… I return to the bridge and settle in to eat while looking over recent B-Log Reports of interest to me browsed from the Neocom and working on the POS Fuels Status Report and suchlike…

I take my time, I’m in Hisec and while yes, there are gankers and such, for the most part you can usually bank on getting where you plan to go and after my recent close call in lowsec I am feeling perfectly at ease as we warp gate to gate through the relative “safety” of hisec Empire space… until…

Target Lock Warning Klaxons scream through the bridge as we receive the Imperial Amarr Navy warning, “TurAmarth ElRandir, you are an enemy of the Amarr Empire! This is your last voyage into our territory!”

47 seconds … almost a full MINUTE goes by during which time I am what??? Calmly in a true James T. manner ordering an immediate warp out to the nearest Planet? Moon?? Asteroid belt??? Something that would AT MOST take 15, 16 SECONDS?!?!?!?!…

Naw… not ME! I freaked out completely and my brain, no longer under any cognitive control whatsoever, and reliving vividly the recent memory of my near bodyloss back in lowsec, turns my bumbling slow ass freighter and… burns at the amazing speed of 51m/s BACK TO THE EFFIN GATE!!!! Which was approximately 15 km away… I died. I died horribly an I died of STOOPIDITY.

35 seconds…. It took them less time to kill me than they gave me between warning and finally opening up on me in the depressing realization that I was that effing ‘tarded… The Imperial Amarr Navy did not kill me because I had the audacity, the sheer ballz to calmly fly into Amarr space as if I was an invited guest of the Imperial Family! Oh NO… they killed me as an act of MERCY to free me from my own fatal stoopidity.

In otherwords… I went all FUCKBEANS BANANASLIPPERS RUN RUN RUN!!! and paid for it in full.

OK… the smoke clears and there I sit bobbin in my pod with a jet can none too full of what’s left of my cargo and a few paltry modules and 3 empty Huge Secure Cans floating by my Whores smoking, glowing wreckage… I of course had kept up a running commentary on TS & in chat with my allies…

[05:31:46 ] TurAmarth ElRandir > FUK ME!!!!!!!!! 130MIL of shit in a can I can’t get out of here!!!!!!!!

My allies were very, very concerned for me… they wanted to know just if I could walk and chew gum at the same time? Anyhoo… I start orbiting my floating space junk at 500m in the hope my POD will scare off anyone bold enough to run get an Indie and ”You just you try and steal ervythin of mine!!”… “I’ll… I’ll…!!!”…

Turns out Sov is only 3 hops away and in his Mammoth… Oh frabjous day! We fleet up again and he gets the system & gate I am at and starts on his way to me. Now I am pissed but moar importantly I am WORRIED that someone else will get there afore Sov and complete the losses my stoopidity started… I take note of a Dramiel that is nudging about my wreck… I take as offensive a posture and my POD is capable of and he priv convos me… Hmmm…

Turns out he was offering to assist. I said I could use, and would pay for , armed response if anyone tried to steal my shit… He offered to swap it all into a jetcan of his own… uh, lemmethinkaboutitNOthankyou!

Sov starts to grab ervything just as an Orca lands right beside us… and runs salvagers on my wreck! LOL… Sov gets all the loot and dropped assets and we head to the hisec hole system… him in his Mammoth with my paltry leftovers and me in my POD…

Later that evening one of my corpmates logs on…

[04 06:04:54 ] Strigon Leader > what is up?

﻿[04 06:05:33 ] TurAmarth ElRandir > im in my pod..... NC1M is huntin me.... Sov is in a hauler with all the shit left from my popped Whoredur.... so how are you?

Them as what follow me...

Graphiti...

Round and round we go...

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"Maybe we're not that different after all and I have my own reality to get to grips with."Absence of Substance

Now THAT is wisdom...

We are, each and alone, the absolute center of our subjective 'verse... this is the way of life.To see another's POV as if it were your own... this is the way of truth...To allow that some others have POVs you cannot and will never understand, and yet accept them as they are, this is the way of acceptance...To kill them all without rancor or anger, but in brotherhood... this is the way of EVE.

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